Libertarians Offer New Approach

The Libertarian Party 1996 presidential nominating convention, which starts the morning of July 4, offers stark contrasts to the conventions of the other parties this summer.

First, the old parties will each receive $12 million from the Federal Election Commission to help stage their conventions. Their presidential nominees will then get $60 million each from the FEC to spend during the few weeks before the November elections. And all through the primary season, candidates from both parties have taken millions in so-called matching funds.

For Libertarians, "ending welfare as we know it" starts with refusing to accept welfare for political candidates. In 25 years, Libertarians have not accepted money taken from taxpayers to help boost our presidential campaigns.

Second, the candidates for our presidential nomination will debate their campaign platforms in public and on national TV on Friday, prior to our selection Saturday. Although the pre-convention favorites are likely to win, their victories are not the foregone conclusions delegates to other presidential conventions face.

Our national platform is not written to suit our nominees. Rather, our nominees must persuade voting delegates that their campaigns will uphold our platform and our principles.

And for the third time in our seven national campaigns, our vice presidential nominee is likely to be a woman. The only challenger she may face is the African-American who was the runner-up for our presidential nomination in 1992. It is a record no other mainstream party can match -- and more remarkable because the Libertarian Party is opposed to affirmative action.